Referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile into the East Sea.”
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the military “detected what was presumed to be a long-range ballistic missile shot from the Pyongyang area around 1000 (0100 GMT) toward the East Sea”.
UN Security Council resolutions prohibit North Korea from using ballistic missile technology, including for satellite launches.
US spy planes claims
The US and North Korea have been engaged in a fiery altercation over claims of US spy planes, with Pyongyang on Monday condemning Washington’s plans to deploy a nuclear missile submarine near the Korean peninsula.
A spokesperson for the North Korean Ministry of National Defence said the United States had “intensified espionage activities beyond the wartime level”, citing “provocative” spy plane flights over eight straight days this month.
Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, issued a warning to the US after Pyongyang said that it scrambled warplanes to ward off an American spy plane that had intruded into its exclusive economic zone.
Kim’s sister said, “The intrusion into the DPRK’s 200-nautical mile economic water zone by the reconnaissance asset of the hostile country…is clearly a grave encroachment upon the sovereignty and security of the DPRK.”
